Auxo Speaking Series: Exploring The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence on The Legal Profession

Exploring AI’s Impact on Legal Practice for Van Zyl Le Roux Attorneys

VZLR Attorneys is a multi-disciplinary legal firm, established in 1944. With over 80 years of experience, VZLR has built a nationally distributed team of dedicated legal experts, offering a comprehensive range of legal services, including banking and financial law, conveyancing, commercial law, family law, and personal injury law. As part of its commitment to continuous learning, the firm hosts a quarterly Breakfast Club, a platform where industry leaders share insights on emerging trends, ranging from cybersecurity to Artificial Intelligence.

Auxo Digital led a recent Breakfast Club, in an interactive session exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for the legal industry.

With breakfast served, attendees engaged in a thought-provoking session that demystified AI’s capabilities, risks, and regulatory landscape, offering practical insights into its application in legal practice.

The session was led by Theo Egling, published Machine Learning researcher and co-founder at Auxo Digital.

Theo’s session began with an interactive "Spot the AI" game, where attendees attempted to identify AI-generated images and text (about 85% of attendees were unable to distinguish AI generated imagery vs the real thing), highlighting how seamlessly AI integrates into our daily lives.

This hands-on approach demonstrated the challenges of detecting AI-generated content and underscored the legal risks associated with misinformation and intellectual property concerns.

The discussion then explored AI’s origins, breaking down machine learning principles and how models are trained to process, predict, and generate data. A live deepfake demo brought AI’s power into stark reality—volunteers saw their faces transformed into celebrities in real-time, exploring the technology’s potential for misuse in identity theft and fraud.

Given the rapid integration of AI into legal processes, Theo provided a comparative analysis of AI regulations in the European Union, the United States, and South Africa. He outlined key frameworks, including the EU AI Act, which classifies AI systems based on risk, and the evolving South African policy landscape, where private industry is playing a pivotal role in shaping AI governance.

The discussion touched on the legal ramifications of AI’s decision-making in courtrooms, particularly the risks of AI-generated legal arguments. The Mavundla case was highlighted—in which an unqitting South African legal firm unknowingly submitted AI-generated case law, which proved to be fabricated, resulting in reputational damage and financial penalties.

To close the session, Theo equipped attendees with five essential “rules of thumb” for leveraging AI responsibly in legal practice:

1. Never Trust, Always Verify
2. Garbage In, Garbage Out
3. Assume Your Data Is Not Private
4. Be the Captain, Not the Copilot
5. Understand AI’s “Black Box”

These insights reinforced the importance of AI literacy in legal practice, ensuring that professionals can harness its power while mitigating risks.

At Auxo Digital, Innovation is at the heart of what we do. With expertise in machine learning, AI-powered insights, and automation, we equip businesses with the skill needed to navigate the digital future confidently. Theo Egling, with his MEng in Artificial Intelligence and extensive experience in AI solutions, continues to push the boundaries of AI’s application across industries.

For organisations looking to stay ahead of AI-driven transformation, Auxo Digital offers tailored training, AI implementation strategies and AI development services.

Learn more about how we can help your business harness AI responsibly by booking an introductory call today.